Southwest Air Traffic Lower in November

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) reported this morning that traffic in November was down 1.5% year-over-year to 8.1 billion revenue passenger miles. A year ago the revenue passenger miles totaled 8.3 billion.

Regarding revenue, the company said the passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM, an industry standard measure) rose about 1% year-over-year. Delta Air Lines Co. (NYSE: DAL) last week reported PRASM in November rose 2.5%, even though Hurricane Sandy cost the company $30 million in revenues and $25 million in profit for the month. United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) has not yet released November traffic data.

Southwest's total revenue passenger miles for the year to date come to 94.7 billion, down from 95.7 billion in 2011. Load factors are also down, from 81% a year ago to 80.5% this year, and available seat miles are down 0.3% year to date, although that metric rose 0.4% in November.

Southwest's shares are down about 0.5% in early trading today, at $9.83 in a 52-week range of $7.76 to $10.05.